The pro’s are coming to town

While local residents are going about their daily routine this week, more and more international surfers are making their way to Ballito and preparing themselves for the Ballito Pro presented by Billabong.

The event is one of many World Qualifying Series competitions on the World Surf League’s tour and with a total of 10 000 points up for grabs in the rankings, it can make or break a young surfer’s dreams.

Ballito has proved itself to be a great venue and if we are lucky, we might see some epic waves too.

Right now, everyone is waiting to see what kind of swell we can expect for the event.

This Sunday should produce some small, clean conditions for the Ballito Pro Womens and Ballito Pro Trials.

Surf fans can look forward to watching 18 of the best South African women surfers who will battle it out in the QS1000.

The South Coast’s Heather Clark will be a force to be reckoned with.

The former World Championship Tour campaigner has a lot of competing experience behind her name.

She is also the only woman who competed in the last QS event in South Africa when it was cancelled due to dangerously heavy surf.

“I’m actually so excited to be competing again and even though many of the other girls will be half my age, surfing against younger girls makes me really up my game,” said Clark.

“I’ve been spending a lot of time in the water so my fitness levels are right up there and my goal is to finish better than the equal ninth place result I got when the event had to be called off in 2009. I can’t wait and hope that the waves will be good for the event.”

The North Coast will be well represented in the lineup with Sophie Bell and Jade Mets from Salt Rock along with Teal Hogg from Umhlanga. They will have some tough competition from South Africa’s highest placed surfer on the QS, Tanika Hoffman from Hout Bay.

“I love to compete locally and even though I’m not from Durban I am familiar with the waves in Ballito,” said Hoffman.

“It’s great that all of South Africa’s top best surfers have entered and the event is going to be tightly contested. Hopefully the Ballito Women’s Pro will be a stepping stone towards more and bigger QS events for women being run here.”

The Ballito Pro Trials presented by Billabong will be run on the same day as the women’s event with a field of 32 men.

The top two finishers in the trials will qualify to compete in the elite 96-man field in the R3 million Ballito Pro presented by Billabong, a QS10000 rated contest that runs from June 29 to July 5 at Willard Beach.

A lot of the entrants in the main event have already made their way to South Africa.

South Africa’s top surfer Jordy Smith arrived in Durban last week, along with a few fellow competitors.

While Smith decided to stay at home, a handful of surfers trekked to Jeffreys Bay in the Eastern Cape for some good surf before the Ballito Pro kicks off.

Ricardo Christie, Jay Davies and Wade Carmichael have all been posting images of J-Bay and Durban on Instagram and by the looks of it, the boys are frothing to be back in South Africa.